Copyright and Glee's "It's My Life/Confessions" Mashup

RE:  Blog #3 - Mashups and Copyright Law  (Mary Ward Communications)

The very popular musical comedy Glee is a show that focuses on a high school's glee club, how the students and teachers of the club interact with each other, and how the music of the club is very easily incorporated into their lives.  In one particular episode, the club had a boys vs girls challenge where both groups had to do a mashup of two different songs and perform them.  The boys decided to do a number on Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" and Usher's "Confessions".
Here's the video of the boys performing!


What is this mashup trying to communicate?  Is it a technical experiment, social or political commentary, a comedic parody, or an abstract work of media art?
I believe this mashup was a mixture of a technical experiment and an abstract work of media art.  I find this piece a bit of a technical experiment because it was a bit of an experiment; the creators were trying out a new idea for the show:  mashups.  It turned out that the experiment was a success because they ended up using the same idea for another episode in the series.  This mashup was also a bit of an abstract work of media art because the blending of the two different songs, no matter how different, sounded quite pleasing to many viewers.  The boys' performance also tied in very well with the music, bringing in another element into the mashup.


Did the creator follow or break copyright laws in its production?
The creator did not break any copyright laws during this production.  This is because all of the music for Glee, even though they're just covers of other peoples' music, have copyrights to their own music.  Their copyrights have allowed the show to sell this song as a single and be performed on their show.


Do you think a mashup like this requires copyright permission?  Why or why not?
I think a mashup like this does require copyright permission.  This is because this mashup was performed on international television, was sold as a single with the Glee cast as the artist, and gained profit from all of this.  When covers becomes world renown and gain profit, like this one, it would be unfair to not credit the original artists and not get copyrights to do their songs.

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NOTE TO MY TEACHERS:

I watch the show Glee religiously, which allowed me to include a bit of background information I knew about the show in my answers.

-Jercy.